Gunman Robs News Agency In Quakertown Police

March 05, 1986|The Morning Call

A masked man armed with an automatic handgun robbed the Quakertown News Agency of an undetermined amount of money last night as six customers watched.

The gunman, described as a tallwhite male wearing an elaborate mask, ordered owner Frank Moll to fill a brown paper bag with cash from the store register and the state lottery machine before using a customer, Leroy Leister of Quakertown, as a shield while backing to the front door.

"Thank you. I'm sorry. I have a wife and kid," the robber was quoted as saying before he escaped on foot down a side street.

No one was hurt in the incident. Moll said it was the first robbery at his store at 215 W. Broad St. since he opened it six years ago this month.

Last night, police were seeking to question people in the nearby Bush House Hotel at Front and Broad streets in an effort to identify the robber.

The episode began about 6:15 p.m. when the robber entered the agency's rear door wearing what a customer said were gloves and a red warmup jersey with the hood up. His mouth was covered with a painter's filter and a red knit scarf. Goggles covered his eyes.

"Do you know what this is?" the customer quoted the robber as asking as he brandished what apparently was a nickel-plated automatic handgun. "It's a gun. I want all the money from the drawer and the lottery machine. Put it in a bag."

Moll, who had just returned from dinner a half-hour before, said he initially was ordered to lie on the floor, where he prayed, "hoping he wouldn't shoot anyone." The robber, who Moll said spoke "very nicely," then instructed Moll to fill a bag with the store's receipts.

Meanwhile, the gunman asked Leister, who was with his wife, Carol, and daughter, Ruby Ann, to step up to the counter. Taking the bag, the robber grabbed Leister by the rear collar of his plaid coat, and using him as a shield, walked backwards to the front door, Leister and another customer said.

The robber ran out the door and across W. Broad Street, escapingdown S. 2nd Street.

Moll said the incident occurred 15 minutes after his clerk finished work. "I have no idea whether they were watching," Moll said when asked whether he suspected that the robber knew his schedule. "I really don't know."

Police questioned Moll and the customers afterward, but declined last night to release any information.